My Studly Husband

Yesterday Micah went on the Chilly Hilly bike ride around Bainbridge Island. It was a 33 mile ride that goes up and down A LOT of hills. He had lots of fun, and even said it wasn't as bad as he thought it would be. And he said he saw some dads with their kids either on a tandem bike or hauling them behind them. Maybe Andy will get to go on a bike ride with Daddy in a couple of years.

New Foods

Now that Andrew is nearing 8 months he has gotten to try some new and exciting foods. He has had Multigrain Cheerios and mangoes so far, soon he will get to try yogurt, cheese and chicken. On Friday I got together with my friend Lyndsay and we made two chicken dinners (one with peaches and one with applesauce). Andy will get to try some chicken tomorrow, I'm curious to see what he thinks about it. He has loved the Cheerios since he gets to pick them up and feed himself. It is fun to watch since his dexterity isn't all there yet. He ends up getting most of the Cheerios in the highchair rather than in his mouth, but he sure has fun trying.
It was fun to hang out with Lyndsay and the boys. Jack and Andy are getting so big. They even played on the floor together while we were making some of their food. Well, they didn't really play "together", it was more Jack taking things from Andy and Andy watching Jack and smiling at him. But it was fun to watch them interact.

The Lion King

On Thursday we celebrated Christmas and Valentine's Day. Micah got me tickets to the Lion King for Christmas, and it was finally our show date. Before the show we went to a crepe restaurant for lunch. I love crepes, and we finally found a good crepe place in Seattle. It is the Crepe Cafe and Wine Bar, and they have yummy crepes. We had a nice lunch, and then headed to the show. The Lion King is amazing. The costumes are so incredibly fabulous. I kept wishing Andrew was old enough to go, there were lots of kids there. It was a nice day for me and Micah to spend some alone time together and do some fun stuff.

Andrew Update

Andrew has been doing some new things lately, and it is so much fun to watch. Here are some of the things he is doing:
1. When he sees our cat, Leo, he makes a sound and it is the same sound each time, and he only uses it when he sees Leo. It is kind of a little growl.
2. He scoots around on his tummy, but doesn't go forward yet.
3. He loves to walk with us holding on to his hands. We put him in his walker, and he likes it, but he would rather walk with us.
4. Grandma taught him how to "kick" a ball. When he is walking with us we can say "kick" and he will try to kick the ball in front of him. It is so adorable.
5. He is trying out new sounds and likes to say "ba, ba, ba" when he is happily playing. His favorite toy right now is this Fisher Price toy table. He loves to stand.

Great Grandpa Visits

A couple of weeks ago Micah's grandpa from North Dakota came out to Seattle for a visit. We got a call on a Friday night saying he was in town, so the next day we went and picked him up from his brother's house. He came to our house and spent the night. We really enjoyed having him stay with us. On Sunday we went down to Micah's grandparent's house in Auburn to visit with them a little. And of course we had to get a picture of Andrew with three of his great grandparents.

I love my Wife and Son! They are beautiful.

Love,

Micah

Napping Update

A little while ago I posted that we were trying the cry it out method to have Andrew learn how to put himself to sleep. Well, now he is doing much better. We adjusted his schedule a bit and now he is sleeping about 10 hours a night and taking 2 naps a day (usually they are 1 and a half hours each). It has been wonderful! Although we have had some bumps along the way. Whenever we have a few days where he gets off his schedule or if he has taken a nap in the car, then we get thrown off and he will wake up early. But it is so nice that he is sleeping through the night now, and he is napping much better. Praise God!

San Diego in 24 Hours

We celebrated our anniversary this week by going down to San Diego. It is always tough to celebrate on anniversary since it is Dec. 28th so we usually celebrate it sometime later. This year we decided we wanted to go somewhere warm and sunny. We didn't have a whole lot of time so we only went down for one night. It reminded us of the time we went to San Fransisco with some friends for 24 hours, and we had a lot of fun.Andrew enjoying the plane ride (he had just finished his sweet potatoes he had for lunch).
We stayed at a cute hotel called Humphrey's Half Moon Inn. It is Hawaiian style and had lots of tropical plants (which made us think of my brother, Justin) and they even had tiki torches they lit at night. It was a fun place to stay.
We really enjoyed the sunshine, and palm trees. When we got to the hotel we changed into our shorts/capris and went out for the day. First we took a stroll in the park across the street from our hotel. Andrew got to sit up in his stroller for the first time. (He is usually in his car seat that attaches to the stroller.)

Then we headed to a local Mexican restaurant for lunch/dinner. We had yummy chicken enchilades and Andrew had green beans, and he couldn't get enough of them.
Next we hopped on a bus and headed to the beach. We got there just in time to watch the sunset. The beach was so nice, it would be fun to be there when it is warmer. We even saw some surfers trying to catch their last wave.
The next day we took a walk around Shelter Island where we were staying, and then enjoyed lunch at the restaurant at the hotel. We had a great time, and wished we could have stayed longer.

Pillow ribbons

I was trying to entertain Andrew as he was getting tired tonight. I placed him on the couch next to Leo, our cat. They both started playing with, and chewing on the ribbons of a pillow. I thought it was so cute I should try to get video of it. So after turning on the camera, I was lucky enough to catch them playing together. I hope you enjoy Andrew's giggle as much as I did (after about 30 sec).

Yummy, Yummy in Andrew's Tummy

I have been making all of Andrew's baby food. I started doing it to save money and because it is better for him. Now I love it. I actually have fun making it. Usually I get together with my friend Lyndsay and we chat while we chop, steam, puree and put the food in ice cube trays. (And thanks to my friend Becky I now have lots of ice cube trays to fill with yummy food.)
It is also fun to see what Andrew likes, or doesn't like as much. He definitely prefers fruits, and pears are his absolute favorite. Now I am starting to mix fruits and veggies together. He has had sweet potatoes with peaches and pears with avocados, sounds weird but it is really yummy! Soon he will get to try bananas and banana-cado, yummy yums.

Sitting Up

In the last couple of weeks Andrew has been able to sit up longer and longer on his own. It is so much fun to see him playing while sitting up. He looks like such a big boy!
And he is just too cute in his Bum Genius diaper right after a bath!

Napping Woes

For the last couple of months Andrew has had a hard time napping. He would need to be held until he fell asleep, and then we would put him in his crib. But he would only sleep there for about a half an hour. Then we would go in and have to pick him up to get him to go back to sleep. So I ended up holding him for an hour while he finished his nap, I got a lot of reading done in the last few months.
Last week we decided we had had enough. We were going to start to train him to go to sleep on his own. He is able to go to sleep on his own just fine at night, but not at naps. So we have been using the Ferber method where we put him down and then we "progressively wait" until he falls asleep. That means we let him cry for about 3 min, check on him, leave, let him cry for 5 more min, check on him, leave, let him cry for 7 min....
Needless to say, this has been a tough week. But we did find out we were letting him sleep too long at night, so that is probably the reason he won't sleep longer than a half an hour. We are still working on it, but it does seem to be getting better. We can't wait until he can take a full nap all on his own!

Grandparent Visit

Micah's parents were able to come out for a visit. It was great to see them and spend time with them.

Merry Christmas

Well, we ended up having a very nice Christmas. Although, I will say I now know that a white Christmas is over-rated. We did get snow on Christmas, but it only made getting around harder. We spent the night at my parent's house, so in the morning we woke up, had yummy waffles, and then opened presents. It was so much fun watching Andrew. He loved ripping the paper and chewing on it. He also liked playing with and chewing the ribbons and bow. He even thought they were better than the presents. :)
In the afternoon we had an adventure trying to pick up my grandma (there was a lot of slippery slush on her road). And we headed to my aunt's house for a wonderful home cooked, gourmet meal with our family. It was a nice way to celebrate our Savior's birth.

Stuck in the Airport

We have had some adventures this week. We had planned on flying out to Nebraska on Sunday so we could celebrate Christmas with Micah's family and then attend his brother, Luke's wedding. However, the weather threw a wrench in that plan, we had snow, freezing rain and more snow. Totals over 9 inches at our house. Some flights had been cancelled on Sunday, but not ours, so we headed out in the crazy weather and made it to the airport. When we got to the gate we found out it was a half an hour delayed, no problem. We boarded the plane and were ready to go. And then we waited, and waited and waited. The pilot told us we were waiting for de-icer. And we waited, and waited and waited. After two hours on the plane, the pilot told us that there was no more de-icer for Frontier. So all flights would be cancelled for the day. So we de-planed and Kim and Andrew were picked up. Micah stayed at the airport to wait in the loooong Frontier line to talk to the Customer Service Agent. He ended up waiting 3 and a half hours. The only option was to fly standby on the 6am flight the next morning.

So Monday morning, the Frontier phone line said the flight was on time, so did the Port of Seattle Web Site. We got to the airport at 5am and found out our flight was already delayed 3 hours. Then later we found out it would be another couple of hours. They had to wait until the de-icer equipment was ready. We spent our time playing with Andrew and talking to the other people around us. At 11am we found out they were still waiting for de-icer and they had cancelled the rest of the flights for the day. But....they would try to get this flight out since we had been waiting so long, but it probably would not leave until sometime after 6pm, more like 8pm. That would mean we would not get in to Denver in time to catch a flight to Omaha that we didn't have confirmed seats on anyway. And getting in that late meant we would not be able to make it to Nebraska in time for the wedding. Needless to say we decided to just go home and bag it.

We ended up having Christmas with Micah's family over the phone. That was a new experience. We are thankful Micah's parents are coming out here in a little over a week. We also hope to get together in a month or two with everyone.
Who knew that even with purchasing tickets we wouldn't be able to fly out for Christmas? I guess we should just stick with standby.

He Did It!

Last Monday Andrew rolled from his tummy to his back for the first time! I was so excited! I have been waiting and waiting for him to do it. He has been close for awhile, but would only be able to go on his side. And now that he has mastered this skill he keeps doing it. Every time I put him on his tummy he rolls over, sometimes it takes him a little longer, but he loves being able to control his movement.
He is also close to rolling the other way--from his back to his tummy. But I'm not anxious for him to master that one. I think it might make diaper changes more challenging.

Matching Outfits

A little while ago we went over to Michael and Lyndsay's house for Greek food. One of our mutual friends got our boys matching outfits, so we dressed them up and took pictures. What cute boys!

Reflecting on Christmas

This being my first Christmas as a mom I can't help but think of that first Christmas. What was Jesus like as a baby? What did Mary and Joseph think about raising the Savior? It still amazes me that God loves us so much that He sent his Son as a little baby who would grow up to give his life to save us. And I ask myself what gift can I give Him? How would He want me to celebrate His birthday? It's wonderful how becoming a mother has added a new dimension to how I view life.

Let It Snow!

Last night we had some snow! We got about 2 inches at our house. When we came home we had hot cocoa and watched the snow a little bit. The snow is so beautiful, and now it is starting to feel more and more like Christmas!
And the weather people are predicting more snow on Wednesday, and Sunday (whether people are right remains to be seen). In fact, it's not supposed to get over freezing until after Sunday.

Mommy's Birthday

Last week was my birthday. Andrew and I spent the day shopping with my mom. Then in the evening, Micah and I went out to Red Robin for my free birthday burger. This coming Friday I get to enjoy my present from Micah: we are going to see Handel's Messiah and are also going out for a nice dinner.